Bubur Kacang Hijau (Green Bean Porridge)

This is a Malaysian delicacy.....delicious as dessert or for tea..served warm or cold....

U need :
200 gm green beans
1 litre water
150 gm brown castor sugar
150 ml coconut milk
a pinch of salt
2 screwpine leaves (knotted)

Wash green beans and soak for about an hour.
Boil water and then add  screwpine leaves and green beans to boiling water.
Simmer till beans are 3/4 cooked. Add sugar and mix well.
Continue to simmer till beans are soft. Add in the coconut milk and pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and turn off heat.
Serve warm or can be refrigerated once it's cool and served cold...;)

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Bubur Kacang Hijau

 

 

 

 

 

Coconut Dhal

Nothing tastes better with flatbreads than home made dhal...This time I tried out a simple recipe from Good Food and made some minor changes....the result : delicious, tasty dhal..served with parathas

Check out the original recipe here :
BBC Good Food

The changes I made :
I only used 1/2 the amount of coconut milk
I added a few cloves of garlic to the boiling dhal, 1/2 tsp of chilli powder and boiled it longer than the stated 20 minutes....

Chicken Parmigiana

Ive tried Chicken Parmigiana at some western restaurants and thought of giving this a try...I modified a few recipes I found online and the result : Resh style...tasty, delicious and moist chicken parmigiana....served with aglio olio angel hair pasta n fresh garden salad....;)

Chicken Parmigiana

i) Aglio Olio Pasta

Angel hair pasta (enough for 2)
Olive oil
salt
chilli flakes
dried oregano
a few garlic cloves (minced)

Boil a pot of water, add some olive oil and add in pasta...boil till pasta is of eating consistency, drain and keep aside.
Heat a non-stick pan with olive oil..Add garlic, chilli flakes, oregano and a pinch of salt..saute for a couple of minutes and add in pasta and toss well...turn off heat.

ii) Chicken Parmigiana

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, slightly pounded, put slits on one side
salt and black pepper powder
1 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten with some salt
1 cup breadcrumbs, mixed with a bit of salt and pepper

1 small can Prego tomato based pasta sauce with basil and garlic (or other tomato sauce of your choice)
 1 green onion , chooped
salt and pepper to taste

mozarella
parmeson powder

Preheat oven 200 degrees celcius.
Heat a non-stick pan with 1/2 cup olive oil.
Season chicken with salt and pepper..dredge into flour and shake off excess.... then dip into egg and dredge both sides with breadcrumbs. Place on non-stick pan and cook for about 3-4 mins on each side or till its golden. Transfer to a baking pan.
Next reduce the olive oil. Saute onion, pour in the Prego sauce, add salt and pepper and let it simmer.. Turn off heat.
Pour tomato sauce on top of the chicken...Arrange slices of mozarella on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper...and a tbsp of  parmeson on each...
Bake in the oven for 5-8 mins, till chicken is cooked through and cheese has melted...

Dish out and serve chicken with pasta and some garden salad....

Prawn Masala

Yummy prawn masala....

You need :

10-15 prawns, peeled and deveined
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 inch ginger, chopped finely
5 garlic cloves, chopped finely
3-4 dried chillies, sliced
1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
4 tbsp tomato puree
1 tomato, sliced  thinly
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
chopped coriander to garnish
water
3 boiled eggs

Heal olive oil in a non-stick pan, saute onions, ginger, garlic, cumin seeds and chillies till fragrant.
Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, tomato, tomato puree and mix well. U may add a little water to make it into a thick gravy..Cook till chilli powder smell goes off and tomato slices are soft.
Then add in the prawns, salt and cook till prawns are cooked well..Add in coriander and turn off heat..Pour mixture over boiled eggs and serve hot..

Gula Melaka Ponggal

Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar)

Palm sugar is made from the sap of the palm tree. Fresh palm sap is boiled down shortly after collection to make concentrated heavy palm syrup. This syrup is poured into bamboo sections to form cylindrical shapes, or into small shallow bowls to form shallow hemi-spheres. The sugar range from, almost white through pale honey-gold to a deep, dark brown, with varying consistency.

Palm sugar is used throughout South East Asia – for both savoury and sweet dishes.

(Asian Food Channel)

I got this pure gula melaka (no added sugar) during my last visit to Melaka (a state in Msia)...it is fragrant...not so sweet..just perfect
I decided to make ponggal this year using gula melaka ;)

Wash 1 cup of rice with a handful of passi parupu...Boil 4 cups of water and rice..Add more water if needed..Stir once in a while so rice doesn't stick to bottom of pan...Cook till rice is very tender and soft.....Add in 1/2 - 3/4 cup of fresh milk, sukku powder, 2 pieces of cardamon, 3/4 cup of grated gula melaka and mix well...Lastly heat some ghee in a small pan and saute cashew nuts and raisin..Add this to the ponggal mixture and mix well...Add a pinch of salt...Mix..Turn off heat...Easy Ponggal is ready....

Lychee Pudding

Light, easy, creamy and refreshing pudding ;)

U need:

1 packet agar-agar strips
3/4 cup brown castor sugar
1 can of lychee
2 pandan leaves, knotted together
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 can of evaporated milk

Coarsely blend 3/4 of the lychees with 1/2 cup of lychee syrup (from the can). Keep aside..
Slice the balance lychees and set aside
Boil agar-agar strips with 4-5 cups of water or follow instruction on the packet and add sugar and pandan leaves. Boil till sugar and agar-agar has melted well.
Now add in the evaporated milk and vanilla...Mix well and turn off heat.
Add in the blended and sliced lychees. Mix well and pour into ramekins or jelly mould...Let it cool down completely before refrigerating.
Serve cold...

Moist Chocolate Cake

This is a moist chocolate cake with cream cheese filling and choc sour cream frosting ;)

Yesterday being my hubby's bday...I organized a small dinner gathering at our place and made his fav cake..Moist Choc..covered with choc...as requested...
Ive been browsing for a good recipe to try out and upon searching many sites, decided on Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake and topped it with choc sour cream frosting and added my personal touch to it by making a cream cheese filling ;)
I was truly glad the cake turned out well and everyone just loved it as it was moist, not so sweet..yet the perfect balance needed in a choc cake...yummilicious ;)

sorry abt the pics as we were enjoying the cake so much i forgot to snap a great pic of the cake ;)

Now for the recipe...
 
I followed the choc cake recipe by Ina Garten...u can check it out at Beatty's Chocolate Cake and I followed the frosting recipe from Recipe Girl

The best part is that there's no butter in this cake and I used oni 2 bowls for mixing - 1 for the dry ingredients and the other for the wet ingredients without using my Kenwood mixer....there's no sugar added to the topping and oni a little butter to make it glossy....;)

The modifications I did for the cake : I used brown castor sugar and reduced the amount by 1/4 cup and baked the cake for 35 mins each (poured the batter into 2 nonstick 8 inch pans)

And for the cream cheese filling :
I used 200gm cream cheese (room temperature), 4 tbsp icing sugar and 1 tsp vanilla
beat it all together and spread it on one layer of the cake...then add on the other layer.

Spread the topping and add on some fresh strawberries...and refrigerate it....delicious bday cake ready to go ;)

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